In anticipation of thousands of new students and buildings in coming years, Colorado State is taking a hard look at how people get to the Fort Collins campus.

Apr. 4, 2013

A student walks to class Tuesday from the parking lot north of the engineering building at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The university has undertaken a transportation study to prepare for its anticipated growth to accommodate 35,000 students in the coming years. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

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Colorado State University students walk to class Tuesday in Fort Collins. The university has undertaken a transportation study to prepare for its anticipated growth to accomodate 35,000 students in the coming years. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Speak up

• CSU last week held a series of stakeholder meetings to hear what people thought about traffic, commuting and parking on the Fort Collins campus. • Those who couldn’t attend may offer their feedback through

The future of on-campus transportation

• CSU has hired Arizona-based Kimley-Horn and Associates to conduct a six-month survey of transportation on its Fort Collins campus. • Since last summer, CSU’s Parking Services has taken a hard look at what is and isn’t working, in terms of parking, traffic flow, congestion, commuting and more. • Long-term plans for campus expansion that include enrollment of 35,000 students — up from roughly 27,000 — have several future buildings going in where there’s currently open space for parking. While nothing is set in stone, parking will be pushed to campus edges, while biking and walking will be maintained at the core. • The study includes analysis of parking management (what’s being done well and what’s not), traffic counts (to see how many walkers, bikers and drivers come through campus) and investigates alternative modes of transportation. • While CSU is looking to add more parking structures similar to the 900-parking-stall Lake Street Parking Garage, other changes being considered include an on-campus bus shuttle, a bicycle share program, locked bike lockers for overnight storage, increased car share programs, more carpool parking and improving campus bike paths. • Results of the study are expected in July.

CSU transportation:
at a glance

• CSU currently has 10,798 vehicle parking spaces and 13,860 spots for bikes. • Structured parking (think the Lake Street Parking Garage) accounts for 8 percent of all campus parking, while surface lots make up 92 percent. • Parking Services is an enterprise fund, meaning its revenues come from fees people pay for parking permits, daily parking passes and fines (this accounts for roughly 12 percent of the budget). It doesn’t draw money from student fees or the university general fund. • Parking/permit fees would fund construction of any future parking structures. Alternative transportation forms, such as an on-campus shuttle, would be bond-funded. • CSU doesn’t have current data about how many people travel to campus each day, broken down by mode. Numbers such as these will come from the study. • Information: http://parking.

A Colorado State University student rides his bike Tuesday on the bike trail along the West Lawn at the Fort Collins campus. The university has undertaken a transportation study to prepare for its anticipated growth to accomodate 35,000 students in the coming years. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

And while it’s a feat that could become more hair-raising as the campus evolves, the university is readying itself for change. CSU plans to grow to about 35,000 students in coming years from its 27,000 today. That increase means more students, more faculty and more buildings.

Campus transportation will look a lot different as parking structures are likely to be pushed to the campus periphery and its core preserved for bikers and walkers. The number of available parking spaces will initially decrease amid construction of new academic facilities and residence halls before becoming more available.

CSU also wants to balance demand for parking with sustainable growth, which means promoting alternative transportation. So how does CSU prepare to become a more urban campus?

“It’s a big challenge, and it’s one that grows as the campus grows,” said Dave Bradford, director of CSU Parking Services. “The (CSU) footprint will stay the same, but people will grow and need to get to campus in many forms.”

Parking Services started last summer looking into problem areas on campus, namely intersections along Centre and Meridian avenues, Lake Street and South Drive, considered dangerous for pedestrians and bikers. Since then, the university has called upon experts from Arizona-based Kimley Horn and Associates to help develop a long-term plan for traffic, commuting and parking.

The six-month study, ending in July, will take a hard look at what’s working and what isn’t. It includes video-taping major intersections to count pedestrians, bicyclists, buses and vehicles streaming in and out of campus. It also focuses on reducing single-occupancy vehicle traffic by offering more robust alternative transportation options.

“There’s no shortage of challenges,” said Dennis Burns, a regional vice president with Kimley Horn and Associates who also helped develop the city of Fort Collins parking plan.

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What's changing?

While CSU will wait for study results to guide future choices, Bradford knows the university will have to up the number of bike racks on campus. It’s also a “strong possibility” the university will install bike shelters or lockers where people could store their bicycles overnight, giving people the option to bus home in poor weather.

Also under consideration is adding more carpool parking spots (Parking Services allows carpools to share one permit), implementing a ride-share program and launching a campus shuttle system in which buses might circle campus and surrounding areas on special routes.

The campus master plan also suggests building eight additional parking structures. Burns said the study will likely recommend fewer. Spaces in surface lots currently account for 92 percent of parking at CSU, while the 900-space Lake Street Parking Garage accounts for about 8 percent.

Parking Services is an enterprise fund, which means its revenues come from money people pay for long-term and daily permits. More parking structures would mean a likely increase in the cost for parking permits, Bradford and Burns agreed.

But students will continue driving to campus because it’s convenient; it’s what they’ve always done, said Andrew Oringer, student government director of sustainability at CSU.

“They’ll continue to drive until there’s an incentive not to,” said Oringer, who lauded CSU for its commitment to make biking easier and reduce its carbon footprint.

Currently, students who refuse to pay for what they believe are expensive permits find spaces elsewhere in neighborhoods bordering campus. Just drive down South Grant Avenue or East Myrtle Street on any given weekday where there aren’t city signs imposing two-hour parking limits; student vehicles number in the hundreds.

This has resulted in bad blood between students and residents ousted from their on-street parking, Oringer and others said.

Burns said CSU must keep equity in mind, should it increase parking costs. He and others heard from a number of university employees — typically those making about $20,000 — who said they park in surrounding neighborhoods out of necessity. One option is to consider selling permits on a sliding scale.

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CSU has partnered with various city entities, including the Transfort bus service, as part of the study because CSU doesn’t operate in a bubble — what happens on campus reaches out into the community. Anticipation of the MAX bus rapid transit system and $86 million Mason Corridor project is also running high, with people excited for the new mode of transportation that will whisk people north and south across the city.

Alli McNeil was excited to hear CSU is focused on improving on-campus transportation.

To avoid parking, the sophomore rides the bus most days from Rams Village west of campus. It took her 20 minutes Monday to circle lots and find a space north of the Lory Student Center; she drove only because she had to work in Loveland immediately after class.

“I hate parking because it takes so long,” she said, hustling across the LSC Plaza.

What if the on-campus stadium comes to town?

Should CSU build its proposed 43,000-seat football stadium along Lake Street, Oringer and others know parking will be impacted even more.

“I’m not really sure what’s going to happen to students who park here,” he said, should the $246 million structure become reality.

“As we put new buildings in and as we try to put more on our campus, parking’s going to go away.”

Bradford acknowledged this possibility: “The stadium is something that will impact everything.”

He said Parking Services’ primary focus has been on campus growth and preparing for changes under the campus master plan. But talks about the stadium “have not been ignored.” Parking, as it pertained to the stadium, was included in a stadium feasibility report delivered to CSU President Tony Frank last fall.

While an estimated 8,400 to 12,600 stadium goers would walk, upward of 32,000 would need to park, that report showed.

If and when the stadium gets final approval from Frank and the system governing board, Bradford and others will develop various parking plans. The stadium’s final design and orientation will drive what these entail.

In the meantime and until traffic study results are available, Bradford said he and his team would continue to investigate potential options, spread the word about existing services and listen to what people require to make a safe and efficient trip into campus. As for Burns, his vision for a more sustainable future is seemingly simple, given the task at hand:

“Maybe we could get people to use alternatives two or three times a week,” he said, to balance demand for parking with more-green alternatives.